Upton, Baltimore

Upton is a neighborhood in Baltimore City, Maryland, United States. The neighborhood is in the western section of the city, roughly between Freemont Avenue and McCulloh Street, extending from Dolphin Street to Bloom Street. Its principal thoroughfare is Pennsylvania Avenue.

Located within the Old West Baltimore Historic District, Upton has historically been one of the economic, political and cultural centers of the city's black community. In the early 21st century, it is the focus of the city's urban revitalization programs.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Upton was one of the most affluent African American neighborhoods in the United States. The Pennsylvania Avenue commuter rail station on the Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road was built in 1884. By the 1920s, Upton was home to most educated African-American property owners in Baltimore. To its south and west were the poor and working class African-American neighborhoods of "The Bottom," and to its east were German-American and Jewish-American neighborhoods.

Pennsylvania Avenue was the premiere shopping strip for black Baltimoreans, inspiring comparisons to Lenox Avenue in Harlem. It was home to professionals such as doctors and lawyers, retailers who served a middle class and upscale clientele, jazz clubs, dance halls, theaters, and other public and private institutions for the black community. Cab Calloway grew up in Upton, and Eubie Blake performed his debut in a club on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Royal Theater, at Pennsylvania and Lafayette, became a mainstay on the Chitlin Circuit.

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